Calamity Jane (AKA Anniel) Is Back

This is my first opportunity to write and thank everyone for their patience and help with my serious problem"1% is not a valid win 32 application"

In the end I bit the bullet and reformatted my PC with the assistance of Evesham technical help. I deliberately bought an Evesham PC because of their good reputation for assistance.

Now I printed off all the helpful instructions on how to rid my PC of nasties and in addition, I have read very carefully BlackSpear's notes on security.

I have equipped my PC with many of his suggestions:

Apart from Avast 4.6 Home edition AV and Zonealarm Home edition firewall, I have the following:

AdAware SE Personal
Ewido
SpywareBlaster,
SpywareGuard
Spybot
Prevx Home Edition
Reg Seeker
CCleaner
CW Shredder

I have not downloaded Proxomitron or any of the Hosts programmes as I am not sure they are easy to use for a non technical person like me.

If they would be useful and if you all think they would help me to sat clean, then I will willingly get them.

I am considering a back up programme to purchase and any other malware product to catch Trojans, worms, keyloggers etc. Can you recommend which programme is most comprehensive and useful for me to buy?


I see that Acronis True Image is highly recommended as a back up tool and if this is suitable for simple folk like me, I will buy it.

BTW, I was unable to use the free scanners that are recommended as they are not compatible with Firefox. Are any of them suitable for me?

I am determined to try to save myself from the trauma I experienced before I reformatted. I was able to save my address book, but lost many items of music which I had not disced. When I was attacked, Nero and my other burning programmes would not work.

I look forward to your excellent advice.

PS You wouldn't read about it.... I just had a virus warning from Avast about a nasty that is associated with Trend Micro. I had tried to get the free scan but when it was not possible with FF, I forgot it, until I discovered a file on my desktop called Sysclean.exezz...which I reckoned was od. I right clicked and Avast sounded a warning that it was a virus called Redlof. I put it in the quarantine chest and sent it to Avast.

How do these things happen to innocents like me?

 

Even when I used IE I could never get Trend Micro to work, Panda took hours!
(on a dial-up)

I haven't tried it yet, but Acronis sounds like an easy app to use and everyone seems happy with it! And Ghost, they like.

I am sure you will get alot of advice here, Anniel!

I know what that is like, a empty sick feeling, huh?!? Where did all my stuff go?
Luckily with BlackSpear's cleanup and security tools, I have avoided that 2 or 3 times now!
Good Luck with your NEWly reformatted computer!!

Marja
Knock on Wood er...Silicon.

 

Annie,

This scanner from Trend will do the job:

http://uk.trendmicro-europe.com/enterprise/products/housecall_launch.php

Regards,

Gerard

 

If you are looking to get Trend Micro to work, and you are using Firefox, you will need to use the European/UK site here:- http://uk.trendmicro-europe.com/enterprise/products/housecall_launch.php

This uses Java rather than Active X (unlike the US site).

But if you are happy to pay, why not get yourself a topnotch AV like Kaspersky Personal Pro:- http://www.kaspersky.com/

No disrespect to Avast, but KAV is simply better. You wouldn't even need an online scan from Trend Micro then! (other than in exceptional circumstances).

Apart from that your defences seem pretty comprehensive. I'm afraid I didn't follow your last thread, so I do not know whether your problems were caused by infection or data corruption of some sort; but I don't think you would need to fear infection in future if you had KAV/Ewido/ZA etc running!

 

Thanks all. I went to the Trend site and it worked a treat.

Topper, I will look at Kapersky as you suggested..is it the best oif the bunch and is it simple to operate (knowing my capabilities!!)

 

Anniel. Kaspersky's detection is second to none and version 5.0 is easy to manoeuvre, if you want to try it, i would be glad to help you out with install/tweaks, all you need to do is ask.

I've added some screenshots, so you can see the GUI and if it's to your liking.

The main GUI:

http://img85.exs.cx/img85/3205/kav50protection9se.jpg

The real-time protection settings:

http://img85.exs.cx/img85/1355/kav50realtimeprotectionsetting.jpg

Regards

 

Annie

Kasperky AV is good and they have round the clock support and hourly virus updates. It comes in two flavours for home users, standard and pro. Personally I use the free AVAST and the latest 4.6 version scans all email and web activity for nasties. I can't tell you which is best as I think the answer is subjective and down to personal preference. AVAST being free is an attraction but you pays your money and takes your choice. If you are happy with AVAST then stick with something you know. If you want to try Kaspersky AV then you can have a 30 day trial at no cost.

For backup I would definitely recommend Acronis True Image. It has saved me from annilation on more than one occasion and it's easy to use.

Paul

 

If you want an AV that is simple to use you probably would not benefit from the extra configurability of the Pro version of KAV. The Personal version, as shown by Don above, is more appropriate and will keep you just as well protected.

You can literally install KAV and then entirely forget about it, if you wish - it could not be simpler! It will update itself every 3 hours, and carry out regular demand scans, without the need of further input from you! You would need to make one small adjustment, to take account of the fact you are running AdAware which has a lot of password protected files, which would generate pop-ups during a KAV scan, if you did not set it to ignore them. Apart from that, it is 'set and forget'!

 

OK, I will get the personal version. I take it I should first completely uninstall Avast and then download Kapersky immediately?

I think I will take the trial version and see how I get on to make absolutely sure I like it.

I will expect it will pick up more than Avast.

BTW, my ISP scans ny emails already with Kapersky before I ever see them!

 

Anniel,

Generally, you'll want to perform all the downloads first, just save the install files to a known location. Uninstall Avast. Even if not indicated, a reboot is in order here (and generally before any significant install just to put the machine in a well defined state). Install KAV and reboot. Somewhere in here, you'll need to associate the trial keyfile with KAV.

Post back if you have additional questions.

Blue

 

Download the Kaspersky trial here, and then uninstall Avast. Two things i would advice you to do:

1. Give Kaspersky all the rights it asks for in Zonealarm, if you should encounter any trouble eg. not being able to go on the internet, then disable the networkmodule found in: "settings" > "Configure Real-timeprotection" > "troubleshooting" > check "Disable networkprotection against attacks at startup" Reboot. This can actually be done during installation:

2. When the installation is done, Kav will ask for a reboot (do this), when it starts up again it can seem like it's freezing, just leave it to "do it's thing" don't use the computer while this happens, it's updating and the update is over 5mb so a little patience is needed.

When you're done post back, and we will sort you out settings wise.

 

Forgot something, Kaspersky has a british site http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/ if you decide in favor of Kav after the trial, then this where you should buy from, they come highly recommended by some of the brits around here regarding support.

 

Which version of KAV is it again that uses all the NTFS? Pete